Interbody fusion devices are well known in the prior art, including expandable interbody fusion devices and fixed-height interbody fusion devices. Examples of expandable interbody fusion devices may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 8,900,312 and in U.S. Pat. No. 9,216,094, both assigned to the assignee herein, and both which are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. Further examples of expandable interbody fusion devices are found in devices sold by Spine Wave, Inc., of Shelton, Conn., U.S.A., under the brand name “VELOCITY”.
As is well known with techniques relating to implantation of interbody fusion devices, bone graft material is typically introduced in and about an implanted device to foster bone fusion between target vertebrae. Various techniques are known in the prior art for introducing graft material intradiscally. One example is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,741,261, which issued to Moskovitz et al. on Apr. 21, 1998, wherein a graft delivery apparatus comprises a delivery cannula having a funnel at the introduction end. A quantity of bone graft material is received in the cannula and a delivery piston is provided for insertion into the cannula to manually eject graft material from the cannula to the fusion site. Other graft delivery systems are known, such as the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,186,193, which issued to Kleiner et al. on Nov. 17, 2015, wherein a graft delivery device is integrated with a fusion cage to disperse biologic material through the cage to a disc space.